With the advancement and prevalence of communication services, consumers have a variety of options with respect to these services and communication devices, such as landline telephones, cellular telephones, laptop computers, or personal digital assistants (PDAs). Notably, these devices can support, among other functions, voice communication sessions via different services with differing cost structures. However, users have traditionally been provided little control over the management of their communication sessions. In other words, users are not able to optimize how they communicate using the many available devices to take advantage of potential cost savings. For example, if a user is engaged in a cellular phone call during peak operating hours and arrives at home where a more cost-effective option exists, i.e., a landline station, the user can utilize the landline station to communicate. Unfortunately, this requires terminating the current session and reestablishing a new session. Such option is impractical, particularly if the user is reluctant to interrupt the phone call, as in the case of a business call, for instance. Moreover, most users would not consider the inconvenience of having to hang up and dial the other party worth the cost savings.
Another consideration relating to how communication services are utilized and developed is the fact that service providers are continually challenged to develop services to meet consumer demands for features that provide greater convenience, while seeking new sources of revenue.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach to enable greater user control of call sessions among communication devices.